If you want a full ride to college, best learn to shoot and pass

He was an all-state soccer player on one of the area's top teams, with a grade-point average hovering in the 3.0 range.

Kyle Hartley believed he was the ideal candidate for a full athletic scholarship.

Then the coaches started talking money - and about how little of it was available.

"Surprising? Yeah, very surprising," said Hartley, a former Kempsville High School star who wound up accepting a partial scholarship at Old Dominion University. "Growing up, you have all these visions of grandeur. You think you're going to get a full ride here or a full ride there. But then you get there and find out that the full ride is almost unheard of."

Actually, full scholarships get doled out all the time - in football and basketball. Four years ago, Western Branch High's two-sport star, Ryan Pond, considered a 100 percent package to play quarterback at Clemson University, according to his father, Ray. When Pond decided his heart was in playing baseball, he "settled for" an 80 percent deal from North Carolina State.

"We didn't realize it was that good until I got around the other parents," Ray Pond said. "I heard them talking about 20 percent, 30 percent. I figured I'd better just keep my mouth shut."

The schools insist that partial offers are simply a matter of making a little money go a long way.

The revenue-producing football and basketball programs are fat and happy by comparison. Division I-A football programs can offer 85 full scholarships - 63 in Division I-AA - and many of these coaches insist that's operating at a bare minimum. Men's basketball gives out 13 full scholarships; women's hoops give out 15.

But in baseball, the NCAA allows schools to award 11.7 scholarships for rosters that can max out at 35 players. Norfolk State University funds almost 10 baseball scholarships, and coach Claudell Clark said it's a challenge to spread that over a team that typically numbers in the mid-20s.

"It would be nice to give everyone 100 percent," Clark said. "But that's just not how this business works."

ODU's Jerry Meyers, who will be entering his fifth season as the Monarchs' head baseball coach, said he has never awarded a full scholarship.

"And at my two previous D-I stops," the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina- Wilmington, "we didn't give out any, either," he said.

Meanwhile, Old Dominion wrestling coach Steve Martin has the equivalent of fewer than 10 full scholarships available to divvy up.

"I had a kid say to me, 'So you get 10 new ones every year, right?' " Martin said. "And I'm like, 'No, that's 10 for the whole five-year cycle.' For the most part, these kids coming in are clueless. They have no idea."

Women's athletics aren't immune to the crunch, but without the scholarship-siphoning colossus of football, the problem isn't always as acute. Division I women's rowing teams, for example, can offer the equivalent of 20 full scholarships; there are 18 more available for outdoor track. In addition, women's teams in tennis, gymnastics and volleyball are required to provide full scholarships.

To prevent recruits from thinking they're getting the runaround, coaches are getting the word out. Brian Bashara, whose son, also named Brian, is a star shortstop at Maury High School, got the straight scoop when he heard Virginia Tech baseball coach Peter Hughes lecture some prospects at a showcase camp.

"They're not selling people a bill of goods," Bashara said. "Some parents either aren't listening, or they want to deny the truth."

Even elite performers find themselves settling for less. Drew Courtney of Robinson High School in Fairfax is ranked among the top 20 players in the country among boys18 and under, and he finished his high school career having won three state singles titles, four doubles crowns and four team championships.

His reward? A half-scholarship from the University of Virginia, which he says he was happy to get.

In baseball, a new NCAA rule mandates that schools can offer no less than a 25 percent scholarship. But in many sports, partial deals wind up being less than $1,000, or maybe the cost of textbooks.

So what are prospective college athletes and their parents to do?

- Keep up those grades. For all of Kyle Hartley's athletic prowess, his scholarship bid may have suffered because he was not stronger academically. Colleges typically have considerably more academic aid available than athletic aid. And while Hartley was an above-average student, his mother said schools such as the College of William and Mary and the University of North Carolina backed off because he wasn't exceptional in the classroom.

"If I could tell kids coming up one thing, it would be: Pay attention to your schoolwork," Shelley Hartley said. "I think it really does make a difference."

- Don't look at a scholarship as the payoff for all the money you've invested in your child's athletics. According to Virginia AAU baseball chairman Nelson Adcock, the bill for a travel baseball player can approach $10,000 a year.

"All the money we spent in baseball and all the traveling, we could have bought a college," Ray Pond said.

- Continue honing those skills. The amount of aid you receive as a senior could be significantly greater than the sum you were awarded as a freshman. ODU men's soccer coach Alan Dawson said he takes care of his own players first before dealing with newcomers. And Clark said he routinely bumps up his players' grants as they develop.

Still, the teams' limited resources mean that magic 100 percent figure is unlikely. Those set on full scholarships should probably start training to be wide receivers or power forwards.

Otherwise, the money's probably just not there.

Paul White, (757) 418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com